Your Town Might Ban Sledding Next

Is it the residents' or the cities' responsibility to keep things safe?

There's a new winter trend popping up in towns across America, and no, it's not Olaf look-alike snowmen. The Associated Press reports that each year, more and more cities ban or limit sledding hills in public spaces. Because, on the one hand, careening down a slippery slope is a fun winter pastime, but on the other, it's pretty dangerous.

We can almost hear our grandfathers say, "In my day, we sledded on the steepest, snowiest hill in town and everything was just fine!" But the truth is that the risk for injury is often too high for towns to ignore. The AP notes a couple cases in which winter sledders were badly hurt (one 5-year-old girl was even paralyzed after she hit a tree), resulting in multimillion-dollar lawsuits. And a study out of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, OH, found that more than 20,000 children were treated annually in emergency rooms for sledding injuries between 1997 and 2007.

In response, many towns are limiting access to hills or at least posting signs that alert visitors to possible danger. Which begs the question, can a "sled at your own risk" policy really work? Parents might make their kids wear helmets while sledding (not a bad idea), or assume all responsibility for accidents, but many cities still don't feel like they can take the chance. "We live in a lawsuit happy society," sledding advocate Steve King told the AP.

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